What is road force balance?
How is it done?
Would it show a bad tire if you cant see anything wrong with it?

I have a bad tire on my car (not my truck) and I told the dealer that I thing a tire or wheel is bad. They ask what the symptom. I said it shimmy's at 70mah and I just had them balanced out of state a week ago but it didn't fix anything. I said should I go to a tire shop or could you handle this. They said they could and it sounds like a balance problem. So I paid to have them rebalanced again. Well it didn't fix it, actually they must have rotated them because now it pulls to the right and I can feel it a little more to the steering where before it was the floor board and seats shaking. Any Idea what front tire it could be? Would a road force balance show this? Thanks

 

Do we have any google experts in the house?!

RFB uses a machine similar to a regular balance, but applies pressure to the tire to simulate road conditions. Interesting write up on the machine iteself here.

 

Road force balancing is critical for best results on an '04+ F150. Tires must be balanced within 10 grams (yes, grams, not ounces) of zero and road force must be below 24 lbs (and that's on the high side, IMO, any more than 15 lbs can be felt) for best results.

An important thing to note that road force balancing is only as good as the machine and the operator; road force machines must be checked and calibrated regularly to ensure accuracy.

 

Will it balance a tire if it has a problam that the eye can't see? This is for my car not the truck that I'm having an issue with. Thanks

 

Yes, road force balancing will detect problems that can't been seen with the naked eye and if it can be corrected, show you how to correct it.

 

How long have you had this tire? How many miles on it? Has it been flat and someone put that green goo fix a flat in it? Too much of that stuff in the tire can cause the problem you describe. A bent rim will too. Or the belts could have seperated inside the tire.

If yes to any of the above, balance won't solve your problem for long. Have them take the tire off the rim and check.

 

1 week
I don't know
I don't know
The last two are both what I was thinking and I told my dealer that, they said balance problem but that didn't fix it.
I bought the car used last week out of state
I called them and I'm going to take it back next thursday for them to look at. I didn't ask if they had a machine that road force balances tires. I already paid for a balance so I'm going to give them a chance to fix it since I they already got my money. Hopefully they can, I did ask before I told them to go ahead and rebalance them if I should go to a tire shop and they said no they could fix it. I hope they have the right machine to do this.

 

A road force capable machine like a GSP9700 will be able to detect stuff sloshing around in the tire, bent wheels, seperated belts, etc.

 

Thats exactly what happened with my Explorer. Shook like hell at around 70mph, but went away at higher speeds. Took it in to get the balance checked, belt was seperated. Cant see it with the tire on the vehicle, but as soon as t was mounted and turning the tire by hand I could see where it had seperated.

 

I really can't speak for how the dealership will handle this problem, but I know for a fact that tire places, i.e. Big Ten and etc... will just recheck the balance and rotate that side, front to back. Hope it goes away or you decide to just live with it. You're gonna have to press them. Insist they take a ride with you to see for themselves. Most likely, they'll unmount the tire and examine the inside.

My unedumacated guess would be too much fix a flat or the the belts seperated.

Let us know what they find and how they fix it. We can file it for later use.